Video: The FBI Admits It Uses Fake Cell Phone Towers to Track You

Any given time, on any given day, law enforcement could be scooping up your location data using a fake cell phone tower, and you would probably never know about it. In a just-surfaced video from October, however, the FBI has copped to using fake cell phone towers, known as “Stingrays.”

It’s no secret that the FBI uses Stingrays—“cell-site simulator” devices which force all nearby cell phones to connect to it before rerouting traffic through a real cell phone tower—in order to track callers and suspect movements. The American Civil Liberties Union has detailed law enforcement use of the devices, which have been ruled unconstitutional in two states, at length.